Happy World Soil Day! To celebrate, we launched the initial version of our website and wrote our first blog post.
If you find yourself just south of Lake Creek in Delta County, Texas, there's a 65-acre field with an old oak tree. It's here, past the century-old barn and across the fencerow that you'll see a piece of land like no other. While at a quick glance, it may seem no different than the traditional farms you've seen before, what's happening here is quite special.
This farm, both like and unlike so many before it, was established out of necessity. The need to feed a hungry, growing community, and the need to progress. The need to conserve resources, and the need to prove it can be done. By combining generations of farming experience with the leading ideas on agricultural stewardship, this farm seeks to redefine the limits of our responsibility to the land.
I'd like to introduce you to Odd's Creek Farm.
Odd's Creek is a not-for-profit farm that engages in the commercial production of grains and oilseeds. We hold land stewardship and dependable incomes for farmers above maximizing profits. We hope to discover, define, and refine commercial farming practices that are as economically viable as they are ecologically sound. In this process we consider not just what happens on-farm, but also what happens off-farm - in the creek downstream and at the market down the road. Frankly, this means we do things a bit differently.
What you'll see when you look out on this field is not quite an embrace of a technological future, nor is it a blind return to the practices of the past. What you'll see, if you look long enough, is an honest consideration of all available techniques and a deep caring for the long-term health of the ecosystem that gives rise to the farm.
We don't have all of the answers today, but what we do have is a passion for land, water, food, and community. We look forward to bringing you along on this journey and can't wait to share our harvest with you.
PS: Happy World Soil Day!